![[GODWIN, Francis (1562-1633).] The Man in the Moone: or a discourse of a voyage thither by Domingo Gonsales. The Speedy Messenger. London: John Norton for Joshua Kirton and Thomas Warren, 1638.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_12114_0232_000(godwin_francis_the_man_in_the_moone_or_a_discourse_of_a_voyage_thither061904).jpg?w=1)
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[GODWIN, Francis (1562-1633).] The Man in the Moone: or a discourse of a voyage thither by Domingo Gonsales. The Speedy Messenger. London: John Norton for Joshua Kirton and Thomas Warren, 1638.
8° (139 x 85mm). With final leaf I8, Matthew Clay’s imprimatur. Four engraved illustrations, including one repeat, and including the illustration of St Helena. (Frontispiece illustration with small repair just reaching into the engraving, the first two leaves with light wear in the margin.) 20th-century half calf, lettered up the spine in gilt (extremities rubbed). Provenance: neat title inscription attributing the work to Godwin — John Prosser (gifted to the Royal Institution on 25 March 1851).
FIRST EDITION. ONE OF THE EARLIEST WORKS IN ENGLISH DEVOTED TO SPACE TRAVEL. Godwin’s utopian fantasy was published posthumously in the same year as John Wilkins’s A Discovery of a New World; ‘it was translated into French, and would influence later writers such as Cyrano de Bergerac, John Wilkins, and (probably indirectly) Jonathan Swift’ (ODNB). Godwin is evidently aware of developments in astronomy: he mentions Copernicus by name, and draws on the theories of Kepler, Galileo and Gilbert. RARE: whereas ABPC records more than a dozen copies of Wilkins at auction since 1978, ABPC and RBH record just one copy of Godwin since 1960: the Kenney copy (sold, Sotheby’s, 24 October 1966, lot 2323). ESTC locates copies only at the British Library, the Bodleian, the Folger, Yale and Harvard. ESTC S118837 and S92712.
8° (139 x 85mm). With final leaf I8, Matthew Clay’s imprimatur. Four engraved illustrations, including one repeat, and including the illustration of St Helena. (Frontispiece illustration with small repair just reaching into the engraving, the first two leaves with light wear in the margin.) 20th-century half calf, lettered up the spine in gilt (extremities rubbed). Provenance: neat title inscription attributing the work to Godwin — John Prosser (gifted to the Royal Institution on 25 March 1851).
FIRST EDITION. ONE OF THE EARLIEST WORKS IN ENGLISH DEVOTED TO SPACE TRAVEL. Godwin’s utopian fantasy was published posthumously in the same year as John Wilkins’s A Discovery of a New World; ‘it was translated into French, and would influence later writers such as Cyrano de Bergerac, John Wilkins, and (probably indirectly) Jonathan Swift’ (ODNB). Godwin is evidently aware of developments in astronomy: he mentions Copernicus by name, and draws on the theories of Kepler, Galileo and Gilbert. RARE: whereas ABPC records more than a dozen copies of Wilkins at auction since 1978, ABPC and RBH record just one copy of Godwin since 1960: the Kenney copy (sold, Sotheby’s, 24 October 1966, lot 2323). ESTC locates copies only at the British Library, the Bodleian, the Folger, Yale and Harvard. ESTC S118837 and S92712.
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